A nonprofit established in 1996, HomeAid Sacramento facilitates the building and renovation of temporary, transitional and permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness through partnerships with regional nonprofit organizations that focus on serving those in need of housing as well as construction and trade companies. HomeAid Sacramento is the critical link between the nonprofits striving to provide housing and the homebuilding industry that can help make that housing a reality.
A local affiliate of the national organization HomeAid, HomeAid Sacramento is the charitable arm of the North State Building Industry Association (NSBIA), a membership association of local homebuilding and trade companies. HomeAid Sacramento’s board of directors — made up of leaders of large homebuilding companies and trade partners — helps guide best practices to make efforts as efficient and successful as possible. Projects range in size and may involve anything from land acquisition, civil engineering and architecture to plumbing, drywall, electrical work and more.
With a mission of helping people experiencing homelessness build new lives through construction, community engagement and education, HomeAid approaches this humanitarian crisis with a unique and collaborative outlook.
“We partner with local nonprofit service and shelter providers to help increase or improve their capacity to serve their unhoused (or at-risk) clients,” says Amber Celmer, executive director. “That may mean helping them build more housing, adding a cafeteria, renovating a kitchen, reroofing or any number of other construction and renovation projects. To accomplish this, we bring them together with our builder and trade partners within the building industry, who supply much of the materials and labor in kind.”
Through HomeAid’s unique relationship with the homebuilding industry, they secure a builder captain, who creates a budget and engages the trades. The HomeAid model involves a thorough vetting process whereby scrutiny is applied to the overall operations, financials and other qualifying facets of the prospective nonprofit partner to ensure they are a suitable partner for HomeAid. To move forward, the nonprofit organization must have 50% plus $1 in the bank, then HomeAid’s Builder Captain helps to secure as many in-kind donations as possible from their connections in the homebuilding community.
“Historically, HomeAid provides an average of 50% to 85% of the total cost of the construction project through in-kind donations of services and materials,” Celmer says.
As the only regional nonprofit to partner with the building industry in this way, HomeAid has a unique ability to launch much-needed projects that otherwise might never happen. Through the generosity of homebuilders, trade partners, financial institutions and individual contributors, HomeAid Sacramento has completed more than 20 small (CARE) and large (BUILD) projects for local nonprofit partners in 2023 and more than 110 BUILD projects since its inception.
“We partner with local nonprofit service and shelter providers to help increase or improve their capacity to serve their unhoused (or at-risk) clients. … We bring them together with builder and trade partners within the building industry, who supply much of the materials and labor in kind.”— Amber Celmer, Executive Director
HomeAid projects have helped improve the lives of thousands of individuals and families experiencing homelessness, including survivors of domestic violence, sex trafficking and substance abuse; seniors; teen mothers; abused and abandoned children; transition-age foster youth; and homeless veterans, among other demographics. As a child, Celmer herself was the recipient of services from the Children’s Receiving Home of Sacramento, an organization that has greatly increased their facilities and services over the years with HomeAid’s assistance. “My experience there is a big part of what drives me to help others today,” she says.
HomeAid centers on the continuum of care, less focused on immediate shelter and more focused on projects with long-term impact, aiding nonprofits that guide their clients on a path out of homelessness. Other local organizations that have benefited from partnering with HomeAid include Volunteers of America, WEAVE, Saint John’s Program for Real Change and Powerhouse Ministries.
“We look to partner with new nonprofits and to get more of the homebuilding industry involved in projects,” Celmer says. “One strategy for HomeAid to further our mission would be to serve as a consultant for municipalities with shelters and housing projects. Working together, we could help cities and counties achieve quicker, more efficient and less costly projects, expanding the good we do for the entire region.”
